Wed, May 02, 2012 | 08:04 BST

300 developers are working on Black Ops 2

If Black Ops 2 isn’t the greatest Call of Duty game ever, it won’t be for lack of trying; Activison has 300 staff on the job.

“There’s over 250 people at Treyarch, but there’s over 300 people working on the project,” studio head Mark Lamia told VentureBeat.

“We do have contractors and test teams that aren’t part of the company. Those others aren’t actually employees of Treyarch. But there’s over 300 people working on the game right now.”

Lamia said both the single-player campaign and multiplayer are “pretty big and ambitious”, but also noted that “they really are creating another game with the Zombies there”, explaining the need for such a large team.

For such a massive undertaking, Treyarch isn’t averse to sharing resources with the other Call of Duty teams.

“We actually do open up anything from our side that they can have access to, but they have their own team with their own creative work,” Lamia said of Activision’s internal studios.

“Whether it’s inside of the Call of Duty franchise or, frankly, some other area of essential technology or whatever other area – if there are things that teams can access or leverage, then they do.

“For example, the facial rig and the performance capture was something that we worked with Activision’s central technology team on quite a bit. There’s a lot of learnings there that can be applied to other teams.”

Speaking of other Activision teams, Lamia noted that Treyarch and Infinity Ward share certain values across the franchise, even as they pull in different creative directions.

“I think the desire to make sure, particularly, that the multiplayer game runs at 60 frames per second and is fast-paced and precise,” he suggested.

“The cinematic nature of the game, I think, is sort of signature for the series. For every game that we’ve made, or Infinity Ward or some of the other developers have made, that’s an important aspect of it.”

Guess what day Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 comes out? It comes out on November 13, for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, even if you live under a rock.

26 comment-trail-alt Posted in: Activision Blizzard, PC, PS3, Shooter, Xbox 360
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26 comments

#1

Quasar
02/05/12, 8:18 am

not a single fuck was given

#2

Karooo
02/05/12, 8:37 am

@1 I give a fuck. This game looks incredible.

#3

DreamCleaver
02/05/12, 8:40 am

@1 Couldn’t have put it better myself.

#4

minxamo
02/05/12, 8:44 am

Too many cooks spoil the broth, some of the best games have small development teams.

#5

G1GAHURTZ
02/05/12, 8:46 am

300 is not that big these days.

Most of them will probably just be art and QA, anyway.

#6

Erthazus
02/05/12, 8:49 am

300 is not that big for AAA title?

LOL.

Naughty Dog have 170 developers for example.
Epic Games have 120 (+ they make engine)
Valve have 260 employees
EA DICE 260 employees

300 is not a lot? For this game is 50 enough, but Activision can’t do their stuff, i see.

#7

KAP
02/05/12, 8:52 am

@1
I’m with you dude, it’ll still be a four hour game regardless how they wanna spin it.
And multiplayer is just gonna spew out for same shit they’ve been doing for the last 6 games now.
I love the way the phrase “repetitive” will be seen no where in this comment block.
Yet you hear it everywhere else. We’ve finally become sheep have we?

#8

Unlimax
02/05/12, 8:54 am

Should i clap for them or what ..

Ahh Gamers those days are become so worthless ಠ_ಠ

#9

Ge0force
02/05/12, 9:08 am

Why does Treyarch need 250 people for copy-pasting content from existing games and adding minor changes? On pc, modteams with only a few people can do the same.

#10

No_PUDding
02/05/12, 9:09 am

@6 Uhhh, Epic Games make games…. Not the engine.

These 300 people teams aren’t that surprising. There’s always been 300 people ‘touching’ these AAA games. It’s only recently publishers have realised the value of these large teams, spreading resources under the their umbrella. Developing their own engine and toolset (see the marketing focus on proprietary engines: Glacier, Frosbite, RAGE, Anvil) or utilising the larger teams for remote development or consultation.

#11

G1GAHURTZ
02/05/12, 9:18 am

^^ Whoa! Haven’t seen a comment from you in years, PUD.

(Or maybe I just haven’t been paying attention…)

#12

Erthazus
02/05/12, 9:21 am

@10, i said “+ Engine devs”.
Of course they are making games.

and what you are saying is true, but why you need so much for CoD? There is nothing huge in terms of technology or anything to be honest.

#13

Freek
02/05/12, 9:26 am

Almost seems like there’s just a list of things they throw out for every game.

The big list of press release cliché’s

“sequel will be the most ambitiouse game yet!”

“1000 people and 100 studios are working on this title!”

“our technology is revolutionairy!”

“our multiplayer will be the best ever!”

“this time we listened to fan feedback”

#14

Da Man
02/05/12, 9:40 am

Opengel engine, obviously.

Me sit in PC forums and Opengel forums too. Me made a Hello World at my amazing university and fuck right off because it isn’t my native tongue, I can speak other languages too.

I’m a hardcore gamer and a PC expert, so I know that.

Anyone?..

Anyone…
…
..
.

#15

elisio
02/05/12, 9:41 am

large teams serve only one purpose: to get a game out on time. If you have 100 people working on the environments they will be done faster than if you only have 10.
At least that’s the theory.
If you workflow is shit, large teams are just useless.
But the COD franchise is now a well-oiled machine, with at least two large teams working on 2 different games at any given time, assuring a yearly and timely release. Credit must be given to Activision.
Now, mind you, that doesn’t say anything about the quality of the finished game :)

#16

Joe Musashi
02/05/12, 9:43 am

300 doesn’t sound especially large compared to other games of this generation. I tend to sit through credits when I completed a game and there’s hundreds of names that scroll past.

It’s hard to see what this particular stat is meant to mean to the consumer though. I’ve never seen a big name movie promote itself in the same fashion, for example.

JM

#17

Maximum Payne
02/05/12, 9:55 am

@16 300 is LOT.

Infinity Ward had 100 people to work on cod4 and maybe little bit more on MW2.
Games like WoW,Assassin Creed,La Noire had worked more then 300 people.

#18

aseddon130
02/05/12, 10:53 am

To me this just looks like ‘Call Of Battlefield:2142 and like @1, i don’t give a f**k either.

This will be the first CoD game that i will be passing on. I’ll maybe get a Vita version just to see what it’s like to play on a handheld, but yeah. me and CoD are done.

#19

silkvg247
02/05/12, 11:04 am

Yes because as anyone who’s worked in IT a long time knows.. throwing as many people at possible at a project is how you get it done as quickly as possible with amazing, flawless results. Because every person works in synch, coding like the borg in fact.

Also, 200 of them are probably managers.

#20

xxJPRACERxx
02/05/12, 11:08 am

@16 In these credits there’s lot of people working in financing and marketing and other branch that have nothing to do with actually making the game.

#21

Joe Musashi
02/05/12, 11:24 am

Yeah, I’m well aware of that. Even so, a few hundred developers is not an uncommon number for today’s games. This information is a not particularly impressive or meaningful statistic.

JM

#22

SolomanAu
02/05/12, 1:09 pm

Meah, game looks the same as all the others, lots of big wow!! moments on the old crappy unreal engine…..fucking get with it….update it!@!!

#23

No_PUDding
02/05/12, 1:11 pm

P.S Hi G1GAHURTZ

I posted last month but yeah maybe a bit absent a couple of years before that.

#24

G1GAHURTZ
02/05/12, 1:14 pm

Yo!

Just imagine… You’ve been away 2 years, and still no Last Guardian.

#25

OrbitMonkey
02/05/12, 1:25 pm

300 devs and not one decent writer… Oh wait CoD don’t need a story!! Silly me :-P

#26

No_PUDding
02/05/12, 2:14 pm

Or, still no Last Guardian because I’ve been away for two years…

Uhh, yeah it’s less annoying now.

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